Former Kerala Chief Minister and veteran CPI(M) leader V S Achuthanandan, a key figure in Kerala's political history, died on Monday at the age of 101. He was a founding member of the CPI(M) and served as Chief Minister from 2006 to 2011.
Veteran Communist leader and former chief minister V S Achuthanandan, one of the most popular and crowd-puller leaders in the history of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist in the state, turned 100 on Friday.
'VS was a man who devoted every moment of his life, from the beginning till his death at the age of 100, to the struggle against the injustices inflicted upon land, nature and the common man.'
Veteran Communist leader and former Chief Minister of Kerala, V S Achuthanandan turned 98 on Wednesday.
With the Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretariat deciding not to provide Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan a seat to contest in the coming assembly elections, sources say that the Congress-led United Democratic Front is all set to emerge as a clear winner.
Former Kerala minister M A Baby was elected as the CPI(M) general secretary at the 24th party congress in Madurai. Baby, who was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1986 to 1998, has been a member of the Politburo since 2012. He succeeds Sitaram Yechury, who passed away last year.
The veteran CPI-M leader, who set the agenda for the polls by bringing issues like corruption and sex scandals to sharp focus, had mounted a spirited campaign across the state which was the single most factor that helped LDF to shore up its sagging support base reflected in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Friday, recalled "an old name of Rahul Gandhi" to attack the Congress leader, who a day earlier had wondered why the Marxist veteran was not jailed by the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre, unlike two other chief ministers of Opposition-ruled states.
Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan accused his Maharashtra counterpart of "lying" on the CVC P J Thomas appointment fiasco to "hide his fault."
The Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretariat meeting which went on for a marathon four hours on Wednesday, denied seat to the patriarch of the party, and the Chief Minister of Kerala, VS Achuthanandan, to contest the ensuing assembly elections slated for April 13.
Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan has been removed from the Communist Partyof India-Marxist politbureau but will continue in the Central committee and will hold the post of the Chief Minister till the coming assembly elections. This was revealed by a press release of the CPI-M central committee after the marathon deliberations at the AKG Bhavan in New Delhi.
Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan in a startling revelation told the media that Inspector General of Police Tomin Thachankery "had made contacts with certain terror suspects while he was in Qatar".
Kerala state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala has called for the resignation of the state Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan from the post following the defeat of the Communist Party of India-Marxist led left front in the local body elections.
Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal (94) became the country's oldest candidate to fight elections as he filed his nomination papers from Lambi on Monday.
The CPI-M official faction, which is in a bitter fight with the octogenarian party leader and Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, has demanded his resignation on the issue of diverse opinion from the party secretariat decision on the multi-crore corruption scam in the SNC Lavalin power project deal in which the CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan is an accused. The CPI-M secretariat has come out against the chief minister in which he is also a member.
As Election 2024 hurtles towards result day in a medley of mangalsutra, mujra, mutton, machli and other barbs, these may sound like character names from Hindi comics of yore. Instead, these are the mocking, sometimes vicious monikers given by political rivals to each other.
Amid protest over the proposed ambitious semi-highspeed SilverLine rail project, also known as K-Rail, the Kerala government on Saturday published the detailed project report that estimated the cost of project to be Rs 63,941 crore.
In a quick chat with rediff.com's Shobha Warrier before he started his campaign in Palakkad, VS claims that all is well between him and Vijayan.
Group rivalry in the Kerala Congress unit has intensified further as the political mission of chief minister Oommen Chandy to induct Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ramesh Chennithala into the cabinet has failed.
Ignoring the Communist Party of India-Marxist official line, party veteran V S Achuthanandan today set out to Kundankulam to pledge solidarity with anti-nuclear protesters but was stopped by Tamil Nadu Police at the border town of Kaliyikkavila near Thiruvananthapuram.
The rivalry between party veteran V S Achuthanandan and Communist Party of India-Marxist Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan appears to be heading to a flashpoint, pushing the party to its worst crisis in recent times.
Unfazed by the organisational consequences, Communist Party of India-Marxist stalwart V S Achuthanandan Wednesday said he was dropped from the party politburo a few years back for telling the truth about a corruption case in which state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was facing inquiry.
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau on Friday filed an FIR against Communist Party of India-Marxist leader V S Achuthanandan in a land allotment case even as the octogenarian former chief minister indicated that he would resign as Opposition leader if chargesheeted.
Coming out against the report of the Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Committee on Mullaperiyar dam, over which Kerala and Tamil Nadu are at loggerheads, Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran V S Achuthanandan on Monday said it was "unilateral and in favour of Tamil Nadu".
'Our reform policies are always people friendly. The problem with the Congress government is that its reform policies are only meant for the party leaders to make money,' says V S Achuthanandan, Kerala's next chief minister.
In a relief to former Chief Minister and veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader V S Achuthanandan, the Kerala high court on Thursday quashed the First Information Report against him in a land allotment issue, holding that framing a case against him on 'false and frivolous' charges was unworthy of any merit.
The rise of Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan after last week's dramatic developments in Communist Party of India-Marxist as the undisputed captain of Left Democratic Front in the April 13 assembly polls in Kerala once again is expected to make the contest tougher for Congress-led United Democratic Front.
'What The Kerala Story is trying to do is take the fake hate propaganda which we saw earlier only on WhatsApp to the big screen now.'
Velikakathu Shankaran Achuthanandan, popularly known as 'Comrade VS,' heading the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front government, reached the Sabarimala hilltop on Sunday night after a three-hour-long walk along with thousands of pilgrims pouring into the shrine to have a 'darshan' of Lord Ayyappa during the peak pilgrimage season.
Ending weeks long suspense, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI-M politburo member V S Achuthanandan has taken part in the yatra taken out by party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
Leaders from other state units are coming to VS's aid ahead of the party's crucial Central Committee meeting even as some ministers of his Cabinet have refused to work with him.
Here is a closer look at politicos who have emerged victorious in the electoral contest of five state assemblies.
With Pinarayi Vijayan set to be chief minister, what will be the role for party patriarch V S Achuthanandan? And what are the key takeways from the election results in Kerala?
'He always had a choice to resign and walk toward the sunset in protest.' 'Instead, he chose to be a mute witness to one of the most sordid chapters of India's parliamentary history when MPs were bought up like cattle to steer the nuclear deal through,' says M K Bhadrakumar.
'I told him when I started my political career seven decades ago he was not even born. His political activities, the protests he organises and the way he fights the biggest corporate of India, the Ambanis, give hope to all people who are progressive. My desire is that such a party must grow, and I wished him all success for its growth.' V S Achuthanandan, the senior-most Communist in India, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier why he turned down Arvind Kejriwal's invitation to join the Aam Aadmi Party.
'Yes, it may have been offensive to some, but an expression of regret is all that's called for. No lasting harm has been done, and people should put it behind them, and move on,' says Rajeev Srinivasan, defending Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti who made abusive remarks in Delhi last week.
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